This study puts forward that students may become aware of the constructed nature of semiotic representation of the living by letting them interact with scientific images. With the occurrence of the all-digital graphical representations, new approaches in dealing with representations of living organisms have been introduced in school practices. Computer-constructed images, which range from the representations of macromolecules to creating artificial colors in images of cells or small organisms, provide strong suggestive power to the point that they may fully distort ideas about what living material really looks like. In order to make students aware of the possible distorting effects of image processing, they could participate in this process themselves i.e. starting from “natural” colored photographs or black and white micrographs and “bring to life” different aspects of that image. The image-enhancing activity not only makes them aware of the power of representation but it also provides a valuable opportunity to think about: the matter they are processing; what are cells or organelles; how many are there; what is their relative size, etc. Digital image-processing instills students with visual knowledge and serves as a basis to construct an epistemological “vigilance” towards representations in general.

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